Today is the memorial of St Martin of Tours and he will be most remembered and preached about concerning the famous episode in which, as a young Roman soldier, he gave his cloak to clothe a beggar. His example will be held up to us and we will be reminded of our duty to the poor.

All of this is commendable if predictable, but I wonder why St Martin’s other virtues are ignored? St Martin was also noted for being an indefatigable missionary and founder of monasteries. He penetrated into the wilderness of fourth century Gaul confronting the pagan tribes and “was not averse to destroying pagan shrines.” One can’t help but compare St Martin’s attitude to that of the Catholic Church today in which even the Pope discourages people from converting to the Catholic faith and where we are expected to venerate Pachamama.

For you see, classic missionary work in the Catholic Church is pretty much ignored, marginalized and morphed into “inclusion and diversity”. The push for inclusion and diversity is predicated on the heresy of universalism. Non-Christians and non-Catholics (according to this new form of Christianity) don’t need to be converted. They just need to be welcomed. Why is that? It can only be because it is assumed that they are already saved. Everyone will make it to heaven so why is conversion even necessary? The answer is obvious: if universalism is true then no one need repent and be converted. Don’t worry, the tenderhearted God will force them into heaven.

No wonder the missionary and monastic efforts of St Martin of Tours are quietly ignored. Those sort of things are not politically correct in our one world religion day and age.

What the modernist Christians have done is re-write the Great Commission. Instead of “Go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit” we have “Stay at home and put an ‘All Are Welcome’ rainbow banner in front of your church.”